Pulmonary hypertension is a hidden killer

Lisa Salmon reports on a difficult-to-diagnose disease.

IT’S easy to dismiss a condition no one really talks about as no big deal. But in the case of pulmonary hypertension (PH), it really is a big deal — so big, in fact, that if left untreated, the condition can kill within two years.

Hypertension means high blood pressure, and pulmonary hypertension occurs when the arteries in the lungs narrow and thicken, slowing the flow of blood through the pulmonary arteries to the lungs.